December 22, 2008

  • Advance note: Captain Abu Raed

    At Sundance this past year, Captain Abu Raed won the Audience Award.  It is the first film that the country of Jordan has ever submitted for a foreign language Oscar consideration.  The score is by relative newcomer Austin Wintory and one can only hope there will be more to hear from the composer in the future.

    At present there is no listing for a commercial download or CD of the music from the film.  A special advance CDr was sent for review and I can tell you that it gets off to a rather slow, though mesmerizing start, with vocals by Lisbeth Scott.  Yes, it's the infamous wailing wordless vocal, but at least it's in the right region of the world for it to appear here.  Wintory's score is engagingly lyrical and sumptuously orchestrated throughout the ten cues available for preview.  There is not much more than 17 minutes or so of material here, but it features some beautiful playing with moments of lush scoring and intimate colors on display.  If it ever gets a real release, it will be well worth seeking out.

    Hopefully the sound quality will improve since too often the music is way too hot thus causing some distortion in climaxes.  I hope to be able to share a bit more with you after checking out the film later in the week.